Love old or unusual movies but never know when they're on? Here are four to watch this week:
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959): Widely and affectionately considered The Worst Movie Ever Made, Plan 9 is talent-free auteur Ed Wood's jaw-droppingly incompetent science fiction epic.
Whether it's the inane script, the shower-curtain-festooned airplane cockpit set, or the day-versus-night confusion, the enjoyable badness of the movie just keeps on giving.
Perhaps the best disaster is that aging star Bela Lugosi died three days into filming and had to be replaced for the rest of the movie by Wood's wife's chiropractor, who hid his face behind a Dracula cape. (Nope, I'm not kidding.)
This hilarious movie is an unintended masterpiece. -- 2:30 a.m. Monday, Turner Classic Movies
Muriel's Wedding (1994): This ultra-dark comedy stars fabulous Toni Collette as Muriel, a miserable girl in a miserable family in the miserable town of Porpoise Spit, Australia.
With a bit of stolen money and a tropical vacation, she valiantly tries to reinvent herself with help from her best pal (equally fabulous Rachel Griffiths).
This is an early piece of work from two fine actresses, and it appeals to the naughty misfit in each of us. -- 3:25 p.m. Tuesday, Independent Film Channel
Anne of a Thousand Days (1969): Of Henry VIII's six wives, fiery Anne Boleyn undoubtedly caused him the most trouble and heartbreak. This film beautifully captures the star-crossed love story and political intrigue surrounding the woman who became the mother of England's greatest ruler, Elizabeth I.
The movie is strikingly cast with Richard Burton as the stormy Henry and Genevieve Bujold as the willful object of his (temporary) affections.
Like director Charles Jarrott's 1971 follow-up, Mary, Queen of Scots, the older film gives a sense of lush authenticity as well as stinging melodrama. -- 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Sundance Channel
True Grit (1969): Young Kim Darby's father has been murdered, and she needs a tough guy to track down the killer. She hires John Wayne, a broken-down U.S. marshal, because he seems to have "true grit," which is sort of like "the right stuff."
Along with fellow lawman Glen Campbell (whose acting skills won no accolades), the trio pursues the killer.
After 158 films, Wayne finally won his only Academy Award for this Western. "If I had known this, I would have put the eye patch on 20 years ago," he quipped in his Oscar speech. -- 4:45 p.m. Thursday, Turner Classic Movies
Trivia Question 210: In Tim Burton's film about Ed Wood, who played the talent-free filmmaker?
Answer to Trivia Question 208: Jean Arthur's final feature film was Shane in 1953.
• Ray Ivey is a writer and movie fan in Hollywood, California. He would love to hear from you at rayivey@ca.rr.com.
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